


With Me, or Two Steps Behind Me

by theZanyArthropleura



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Ana "Bastet" Amari, Angst, Bastet Ana, Dungeon Crawl, Gen, God Programs are a thing in this verse btw, Mystery & Suspense, Necropolis (Overwatch), R76 if you squint, Temple of Anubis (Overwatch), Widowtracer if you really squint, underground caves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 19:15:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18372371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theZanyArthropleura/pseuds/theZanyArthropleura
Summary: Sombra is on the trail of a massive, international conspiracy, and has been for most of her life.Jack Morrison and Ana Amari are on the trail of a massive, international conspiracy, and are inwayover their heads.After a chance - or not so chance - meeting during the raid on Hakim's safehouse, the hacker concocts a plan to scare the two old soldiers off the trail once and for all: she'll show them just atasteof the terrible truth.Prequel mini-series toI Know Everything About You.





	1. Chapter 1

The basement of Hakim’s safehouse was dark and empty, lit only by several monitors and the intermittent lights from the floor-to-ceiling server towers populating the back wall. Visibility was surprisingly adequate in the immediate vicinity of the mass of technology, but faded to near-total darkness where several stone pillars dispersed the brightness along the walls to either side.

The guards, of course, had cleared out, rushing to their employer’s aid. Sombra snickered to herself as she listened to the fighting outside, the distraction presenting the perfect opportunity to find out what connections the crime boss really had. She knew, of course, that there were secrets he had been keeping even from Talon.

She tapped away at the purple hexagons hovering near her fingertips, screen after screen of incriminating records popping up all around her. As she skeptically made her way through the mass of data storage, something stopped her in her tracks. She was used to finding backdoors in computer systems, but they weren’t usually the kind that she couldn’t open without the risk of being overheard.

As she considered how to best approach the problem, she realized the commotion outside had stopped, and frantically shut off her screens as she began to hear footsteps from the stairwell. She activated her stealth and ducked behind the shadow of the pillars along the left wall just as the basement door creaked open.

“Now let’s see what Hakim’s been hiding…” began the rough, deep voice of an older American man.

“As long as you hurry up, now,” came the teasing yet urgent reply from an Egyptian woman of around the same age. “You know very well the authorities have been wising up about their response times.”

Jack Morrison and Ana Amari.

Or rather, Soldier: 76 and Shrike.

Or… _maybe_ Shrike. Amari’s cat costume was certainly new territory, and Sombra wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it.

“Provided we really _did_ manage to clear out everyone on his payroll,” 76 drawled as he made for the monitors, “they should be happy with what we gift-wrapped for them upstairs.”

It wouldn’t be a problem at all for Sombra to make sure they didn’t notice her hack, even while the connection was still active. 76 was good enough with computers to get almost everything he thought he was looking for – as Sombra had figured out pretty quickly when she’d noticed the infamous vigilante retracing her steps at LumériCo – but her own hacking tools and implants were operating on a completely different level.

It was something else entirely that had Sombra on edge. She’d known what 76 was up to for a while now, of course she had. They were working the same case, and even if the former strike commander was completely out of his depth, he was stubborn enough that the hacker knew warning him away was a lost cause, one that might only get herself in more trouble. The most she could do was give him something more _enticing_ to get wrapped up in, and _that_ intel had, at least, been keeping the vigilante busy for a while now.

But, apparently, it had led him right back here, and now he’d dragged Amari into it, and if they kept up the pace they’d set with unraveling Hakim’s network, it was only a matter of time before the two of them caught the _wrong_ kind of attention. Something buried deep inside her compelled Sombra to act, to put an end to this before these two hapless soldiers could get themselves and everyone they cared about killed. It took her less than a minute to formulate her plan.

“Find anything interesting?” Sombra suddenly called out from the shadows, injecting a sinister curiosity into her voice.

76 spun quickly away from the monitor, the thin, glowing red line of his visor scanning the room as the blue-violet light of the screens glinted off his blue, red, and white jacket. He readied his heavy pulse rifle. “Who’s there?” he growled.

The eyes of Amari’s cat mask seemed to silently prowl as well, the sniper’s long, tan overcoat fluttering as she drew her sidearm – a small pistol that fired sedative darts.

“Show yourself!” 76 commanded as he threateningly readjusted his aim around the room with lightning-quick movements.

“ _Relájate!_ It was just a question!” Sombra defended, feigning innocence. “If we’re going to be working on this together, we should probably compare notes, right?”

Both former Overwatch agents were rendered speechless, still searching the darkness for their strange visitor.

“Lower the guns and we can talk,” Sombra said quickly. “I already have what you’re looking for, and hearing it from me will go a lot quicker than waiting for farm-boy here to dig through it all.”

76 seemed to visibly tense at the words, just as Sombra had counted on.

“The bootleg SEP stuff is way too unstable to be valuable,” Sombra began as she decloaked, stepping out of the darkness but keeping her companions’ attention with her words even as they caught her in the sights of their weapons. “ _Buuuut_ from the commotion outside, you probably figured that out already.” She shot a knowing glance at 76. “Better off just sticking to your own brand.”

“You seem to know an awful lot about us,” Ana chimed in. “Care to explain?”

Sombra gave the woman a mischievous smile. “Well, I know enough not to call _this_ one ‘commander,’” she snarked, briefly gesturing to 76.

Ana elbowed the super-soldier in the arm with a hummed chuckle. “I think I like her already.”

She’d lowered her weapon to do so, but Sombra knew better than to feel reassured. It was a show of confidence, more than anything. The sniper was lightning-quick on the draw, and could still easily get a shot on the hacker before she could make any move herself.

“… _Focus_ ,” 76 groaned in annoyance. “What do you mean, working on this _together?_ ”

Sombra grinned broadly. “This trail you’ve been following? I’ve been two steps ahead of you all along. Just missed each other at LumériCo, actually. I figure maybe we do this one as a team?”

“In case you hadn’t noticed,” said 76, “the work here’s already done… as soon as we get that intel, _one way or another_.”

“Be nice, Jack,” Ana chided, prompting a harsh, but resigned growl from the former strike commander. “She’s offered to share, hasn’t she? Shouldn’t we at least hear her out?”

“Look, I _know_ you have no reason to trust me,” Sombra began cryptically, “But if you _really_ want the answers you’re looking for…” The hacker paused, then gave a slight shrug and spoke plainly. “you’re just going to have to do it anyway. And if you do, well… what I have here is only the _beginning_ of our little adventure.”

76 sighed, lowering his rifle only slightly. “…I’m listening.”

“Remember back when Anubis broke containment?” Sombra began again, casting a knowing glance at Amari. “I’m sure _you_ remember that day pretty well, huh?”

Even through the panther-like mask the sniper wore, Sombra could detect a piercing glare that nearly made her shiver to her core.

“Well, these records show there was a _whole_ lot of money changing hands that day,” she continued unabated, “and Hakim was at the center of it all. But that’s not even the most interesting part.”

“You’ve got something to say? _Say it_ ,” 76 demanded at the hacker’s dramatic pause.

“If you knew the first thing about computers, you would have noticed it already.”

“Please, enlighten us,” Ana requested, her calmness again failing to conceal her urgency. The two old soldiers knew they were pressed for time, and Sombra was enjoying every minute of it.

“Hakim kept insisting there was no way into the temple after the security breach, but we always knew he was lying through his teeth.”

“The _point?_ ” 76 groaned with impatience.

“But enough about Hakim,” Sombra pivoted, a stunned expression forming on her face as she feigned forgetfulness. “I can’t believe I forgot to introduce myself! You can call me… _Sombra_.” She narrowed her eyes around her moniker, then took a dramatic bow, pointedly curling her long-nailed fingers toward herself as she stood again. “I’m the _greatest_ hacker on the planet…”

As 76 seemed about to burst, Sombra cast off her grandstanding for flat exasperation as she casually gestured to the floor-to-ceiling wall of technology.

“… and even _I_ don’t need _that_ many server towers.”

Both Ana and 76 turned toward the wall just as Sombra brought up a set of hexagons in front of her fingers, and as the hacker tapped away, a moderately loud rumbling noise filled the room. The entire middle section of the group of server towers lowered into the ground, revealing a heavy-duty metal door with a biometric keypad. Sombra easily hacked that as well, and in a moment, the door slid open, revealing a downward-sloping tunnel that had obviously been drilled into the rock.

“So, _mis amiges_ , ready to start that adventure?” Sombra announced with a pleased smirk.


	2. Chapter 2

The whine of police sirens had just started to fill the air outside, but at that moment, Sombra was already hacking the door closed and re-concealing it behind the false wall of server towers. She stood, along with 76 and Amari, in a darkened, narrow tunnel with a slope dramatic enough that maintaining a solid footing was a real and immediate concern.

It was nearly pitch-black aside from the magenta glow of Sombra’s implants and the dim red line of 76’s visor. Moments later, the vigilante activated a flashlight on his heavy pulse rifle – of course that massive, unwieldy thing had one – and began to cautiously lead the way down the slope.

It was a bit of a treacherous walk, but before long the gentle glow of white light could be seen up ahead. The short, man-made tunnel let out into a much larger, natural cavern wide enough to drive a hovercar through. It had likely once been carved out by an underground river, though it was currently dry. Small, dim white lights intermittently lined the walls on either side – the kind of excavation lamps that could last for months and months on a single charge.

They’d barely been in the cavern more than ten seconds before 76 moved to corner Sombra against the far wall. “What did you mean, _we?_ ”

_…Mierda._

At the hacker’s silence, the vigilante took a step closer. “If I remember correctly, it was _Talon_ that was pressuring Hakim about a way into the temple. You’re working for them, aren’t you?” 

“’ _For?_ ’” Sombra queried with emphatic disgust. “ _Please_. I’m a free agent. A vigilante like you, even. So _maaaybe_ I do a bit of contract work on the side, but— _hey!_ ”

76 had pinned the hacker to the rock wall, his thick red tactical glove closed around her throat. It was certainly a bit uncomfortable – okay, make that _a lot_ uncomfortable – but the contact alone at least kept it from being the _worst_ way to go.

“Jack, be reasonable!” Ana’s posture shifted as if she was unsure whether to intervene or to sigh and put her head in her hands.

“What’s the deal in bringing us down here if you’re working for them, huh?” 76’s voice was a piercing interrogation. “Are we walking into an ambush? Did we get too close to uncovering the truth? To rooting out all of Talon’s corruption?”

“ _Talon?_ ” Sombra nearly laughed despite the circumstances. “Is _that_ as far as you got?”

She very well knew that was as far as he’d got, the idiot.

“Answers. _Now_.”

“Jack, _please!_ ”

“Okay, okay!” Sombra nearly gasped under the closing grip that still didn’t let up. Her voice only grew quicker and more strained as the vice tightened. “And to answer the question you _really_ want to ask, _yes it’s still worth trying!_ ”

_That_ made 76 loosen his hold on her. “What are you _talking_ about?”

Sombra took a staggered, choking breath. “Though I feel like it’ll be a whole lot more difficult if you _suffocate_ his fucked-up daughter figure.”

76 let go, and Sombra collapsed to the cavern floor, clutching at her throat as she pulled in uneven breaths. “Somewhere in there, behind all the edgy bullshit and Talon’s ultimatums… he’s still the leader he used to be. The kind that treats a team like _familia_ …” Sombra’s face fell, letting loose a far more genuine sadness than she would have preferred. “…even if he never shows it.”

The vigilante was left speechless, though Sombra could tell he was rethinking a few things. Amari finally settled for laying a hand on his shoulder, both of them still staring at the hacker.

“This puppet show we’re all playing out…” Sombra began as she stood, scowling and still rubbing at her throat, “…the thing that’s pulling the strings isn’t Talon, it’s something much, _much_ worse.” She pointedly turned away and began following the route of the cavern, as if they’d made the simple right turn out of the narrower tunnel. “I really hope you don’t got anyone you care about, cause on the off chance you even make it to the end of this road… you’re bound to lose everything and everyone you love before it’s over.”

Sombra walked in silence for a short distance down the tunnel, footsteps behind her confirming that the two old soldiers still followed, though they didn’t say a word either. What finally broke the pattern they’d settled into was a corpse splayed out face-down along the left wall, heavy assault rifle on the ground just out of reach of the body’s outstretched arm.

“That’s one of Hakim’s men,” Ana confirmed as she pulled up behind the hacker.

“What were they doing down here?” 76 pondered as he examined what seemed to be another body on the opposite wall.

“Getting shot, seems like,” Sombra snarked as she noted the many pulse-fire burns peppering the victim’s back.

“Looks like they were running from something,” Ana added after a moment of contemplation.

_Well, at least we know we’re going the right way._

A glint of metal caught Sombra’s eye, and she pranced a few steps ahead, pulling a piece of wreckage from the ground. The damaged surveillance drone was missing its left-side wings, but the ones on the right side were still intact – broad, paddle-like angular structures that gave the flying cameras a vague similarity to hawk-sized butterflies.

“I recognize that design,” Ana said as she caught sight of the wreckage Sombra was examining. “I used them as spotters back in the old days.”

“Yeah, your eyes in the sky,” Sombra recalled. “Oh, sorry!” she added suddenly, half-turning toward the sniper with a playful taunt in her voice. “Probably shouldn’t say ‘eyes’ around you.”

Sombra could have sworn she heard the woman chuckle to herself under her mask. “well, looks like someone gave that one _teeth_.”

“Mandibles, actually,” Sombra explained, her gaze falling on the two segmented, insect like legs that had been added just below the drone’s circular lens. Each limb ended in a sickle-like blade, and the modified drone also sported a small dorsally-mounted pulse cannon. “This one’s a security type. Special-order black-market version.”

“What’s it doing down here?” 76 asked, impatient as always. Sombra knew the gruff soldier stuff was all an act for her benefit, but it still always managed to sour the mood.

“ _Probably_ the same reason as all those,” Sombra said with annoyance, gesturing up ahead to where more of the drones littered the cavern floor in various states of disassembly. “But if I had to guess, it _might_ have had something to do with that time Anubis took over all the robots in the area and moved them around to different places.”

“But that was months ago,” Amari interjected. “Those corpses are fresher than that.”

“These things are pretty basic, just programmed to guard whatever area they’re activated in,” Sombra explained. “They were probably down here whenever Anubis’s systems got scrambled, then booted back up and turned it into a hive.”

“So, you’re saying there could be _more_ down here?” 76 said as he hefted his rifle. “Functional? And hostile?”

“From the looks of things,” said Sombra with a grin. “Apparently they’ve been keeping Hakim from getting back to the temple, which is good news for us, since it means we might just be able to figure out what really happened that night.”

“You sure Helix hasn’t cleared out all the evidence by now?” 76 asked as the three of them started walking again.

“There’s a reason no one’s praising Helix for their thoroughness,” Sombra began. “They were supposed to upgrade the security once they took over the temple in the first place, but we all know how well _that_ went.”

Of course, Sombra had her own suspicions about why that particular renovation had been put on hold.

The cavern sloped downhill for a time, curving gradually left and finally broadening to a chamber at least several stories tall and wide enough for three lanes of hovercar traffic. More drone wreckage was scattered about, but something else glinted an odd greenish-gold about halfway into the room, off to the left and near a stalagmite formation. Sombra cautiously edged closer.

“Do you hear that?” Ana spoke up suddenly, looking oddly about the room. 76 had his rifle at the ready, looking to the sniper for further clarification.

But Sombra only found herself thankful for the distraction, hastily examining the gold-green-and-silver-plated husk of a humanoid omnic, its outer armor pocked with plasma burns and several of its pistons slashed. Her gaze fell to the machine’s silver skull-plate and the two narrowed, triangular eyes that must have given its face a constant sinister scowl. Those eyes were further emphasized by a thick black outline, the inner corners connecting in a broad horseshoe drawn up along its forehead and connecting through three small lights arranged in an otherwise triangular pattern.

_Good pupper, Anubis! Good,_ GOOD _pupper!_

“I can hear it now, think it’s coming from there,” she barely registered hearing 76 say from somewhere behind her.

Sombra touched her nails to the omnic’s skull-plate, her circuit lines spreading over the surface as she hacked its databanks. They were scrambled far beyond being of use – something Sombra suspected probably hadn’t been caused solely by the machine’s physical damage – but she did manage to find a single, only partially corrupted entry to file away for later.

Something else caught the hacker’s eye, and she swiftly withdrew a multi-tool from her coat pocket. With a knife blade, she pried open the outer armor on the omnic’s left forearm, exposing a strange, narrow rectangle of black metal that didn’t match any of the machine’s other components. She stealthily disassembled the limb and pocketed the conspicuous device.

“Sombra!” Ana yelled with urgent concern, and the hacker finally registered the mechanical, droning buzz that had been steadily increasing in volume. She turned quickly to the end of the chamber, where the cavern narrowed again, just as the sound grew to deafening levels.

Several at a time, security drones filtered through the narrow doorway and began to fill the chamber.


	3. Chapter 3

76 opened fire almost immediately, large and nearly blinding flares flashing at the end of his rifle as the blue energy bolts pelted the growing swarm. Several drones had already been shot out of the air before the swarm opened fire.

“Keep your heads down!” 76 shouted above the commotion.

Sombra ducked behind the stalagmites as orange pulse fire filled the room like sideways rain. 76 had found similar cover closer to the center of the chamber, and Ana had taken refuge behind a completed stalactite-stalagmite pillar along the right wall.

After a short burst, the firing stopped, the drones’ low-end weaponry likely on cooldown. A smaller wave of drones broke off from the swarm and sped out across the room in a horizontal line formation. 76 swept his rifle in a wide arc, taking down all drones but one.

The machine that had broken through spun midair, drifting past the vigilante in a backwards glide. It extended one of its mandibles just as it passed near 76’s left shoulder, slicing a deep gash and provoking a grunt of pain. Sombra took out the single drone with a burst from her machine pistol, and 76 was already back to targeting the swarm, ignoring the wound while Ana aimed her rifle and tagged the super-soldier with a biotic dart.

More drones had poured in, and those moved to the front of the swarm and began another assault, while the rest drifted behind them. Several of the drones in back broke off around the right and left sides and flanked along the walls of the cavern. 76 crouched with his back against the rock formation, firing at the contingent that was swooping along the right wall toward Amari.

Sombra turned to the left flank and initiated a hack on the closest drone, magenta whips lashing out from her fingertips and ensnaring the insect-like machine as her circuit lines spread over it. The blue lens at its front flickered to purple, and the thrusters at the tips of its wings swiveled forward, causing the drone to slow. Sombra then extended her drone’s mandibles and maneuvered it to de-wing the other drones that passed under it along the wall. She snickered with a mischievous grin as each machine crashed to the ground just short of reaching her.

76 had already taken out the right flank, so Sombra directed her drone back into the swarm, activating its self-destruct once it had reached the center. The blast sent debris flying in all directions and several mostly-intact drones crashing to the cavern floor.

The remaining drones appeared to scatter at first, then collectively soared upward, joining with more reinforcements from deeper into the cave and spiraling in a single column along the ceiling. The mass of drones formed a meandering tendril that passed overhead, then curved downward to lunge at the three intruders from behind.

Ana fired a single, glowing blue dart from the launcher embedded in her left gauntlet, tagging 76 as he turned to target the swarm.

_“You’re powered up, get in there!”_

76’s tactical visor activated, projecting a curved, translucent red, rectangular holographic screen out in front of the red line on his faceplate. Diamond-shaped targeting reticles popped up by the dozens across its surface.

_“I’ve got you in my sights.”_

The tendril of drones made it to within five meters of 76 before colliding with sustained fire from the vigilante’s heavy pulse rifle. Each shot met its mark exactly, even at full-auto, and the tendril erased itself completely as the component drones disappeared into a continuous cloud of energy detonations and propelled shrapnel.

The main swarm was already reforming at the end of the room as more reinforcements arrived. The newly-arrived drones opened fire, and the three intruders ducked back behind their cover, which was being slowly eroded by the repeated energy attacks.

As the rain of pulse fire continued, Sombra took note of when the drones stopped entering the room, the full extent of their number seeming to have finally been deployed into combat. She activated her stealth, then sneaked along the left wall. When she was about centered relative to the depth of the swarm, she dove into a roll that carried her under the lowest level of drones, stopping in a low kneel just below the swarm’s center. She decloaked with her arms crossed just as waves of purple light rippled inward around her.

_“Apagando las luces!”_

Sombra threw out her arms, the electromagnetic pulse washing over the swarm. The drones’ lights, pulse batteries, and thrusters instantly deactivated, and they clattered to the cavern floor.

Sombra felt a sudden, sharp pain in her upper right arm as one drone’s trajectory carried it past her as it fell, one of its mandibles tearing through her glove and leaving a deep gash in her skin. She cried out in pain and clutched the injury.

76 pulled something from his belt and tossed it toward the ground at Sombra’s feet.

Sombra dove into another, frantic roll, colliding with a low rock formation near the right of the cavern and further aggravating her torn arm. Still in a startled panic, she backed as far as she could against the wall as the small canister unfolded itself, filling a circular area of the cavern floor with glowing, green-yellow smoke.

“It’s a biotic field,” 76 explained with clear impatience for the hacker’s antics.

“I can _see_ that,” Sombra hissed with a defensive scowl. “Maybe fucking _ask_ first?”

“You’re going to bleed out if you don’t get that healed up,” Ana insisted, that fucking cat mask condescendingly peering around the pillar formation the sniper had taken cover behind.

Rolling her eyes, Sombra initiated a hack on the field generator, making _absolutely fucking sure_ to give herself final say over the nanites’ actions. It wasn’t even a necessary precaution, and Sombra knew it, but she could never shake the uneasy feeling that washed over her at the idea of trusting any biotic tech that wasn’t under _her_ direct control.

After inserting her own emergency stop and reverse commands, she sighed and reached into the sleeve of her coat to roll her damaged glove down to her elbow, exposing the still-bleeding gash. With a near-constant shudder, she nervously inched toward the range of the biotic field, holding her elbow out in front of her until she could see the glow beginning to repair the wound. After letting the technology work for a few seconds, she quickly pulled away, moving back toward the wall.

“It’s not finished,” 76 said with a sigh.

“Just _mind your own fucking business_ already!” Sombra hissed again as she examined the skin around the gash in the light of one of the lamps. After a moment, she let out the breath she’d been holding, then moved back to the edge of the field and held out her elbow until the wound had closed completely. She double-checked in the light again before rolling her glove back up to her shoulder.

While 76 collected his field generator, Sombra sat down and rested her back against the rock formation, holding her knees close to her chest and waiting for her breathing to return to normal.

“Who was that?” Ana asked from where she’d crouched on the other side of the rocks. Sombra followed the woman’s gaze to the remains of the humanoid omnic. “I don’t think that’s one of Hakim’s.”

“My guess? Whoever Anubis sent these drones after in the first place that got them stuck down here.” Sombra gestured to the cavern walls. “ _Somebody _had the time to set up all these lights on the way in, but didn’t bother to take them down on the way out.”__

____

That seemed to get 76’s attention, and he eyed the walls with renewed interest, raising his rifle as he took a closer look down the doorway the drones had entered through. “More lights as far as I can see,” he announced. “Can’t see anywhere they stop.”

____

Sombra stood up, but remained in place. “And if we find them all the way to the end, you know what that means, right?”

____

76 took a moment to think, then turned to face the hacker directly. “That whoever put them up did it _before_ Anubis broke containment, but didn’t leave until _after_.”

____

“Well then,” Sombra began with a grin that masked her dark suspicions, “let’s go see what they did that got Anubis so pissed off.”

____

As they made to leave, Amari stopped Sombra with a gentle hand on her shoulder that made the hacker freeze and pull away.

____

“Are you… going to be alright?” the sniper asked with concern.

____

Sombra’s scowl hesitated over forming again. There was something about that cat mask – the soft, calm expression and knowing look in its eyes – that, in addition to the genuine, comforting tone in the older woman’s voice made Sombra _almost_ want to trust her.

____

Almost.

____

“I’m _fine_ ,” the hacker finally settled on, letting the words out in a near-hiss before gesturing to Amari’s rifle. “But if you shoot me with that thing, I can’t guarantee I won’t shoot back. I don’t care _what_ kind of dart you use.”

____

Ana let out a light chuckle and moved to follow.

____

The next, narrowed portion of the cavern extended for several hundred more meters before the lights stopped, and another narrow, upward-sloping tunnel was drilled into the rock. 76 activated his flashlight again and the group proceeded up the short passage.

____

The tunnel let out into a shadowed corner of a small network of rectangular hallways, the floors, walls, and ceilings all built-up with mostly intact brickwork. Light from dimmer lanterns and the moonlight pouring in through far-off doorways shone on a short stairwell to a slightly lower level and several groups of clay urns. Sombra led the other two toward one of the moonlit entryways, and stepped out into the night.

____

The temple itself was a strange, open-air construction with only partial sections of ceiling supported by massive stone columns. The floor and walls were open in sections, several passageways running around and below the main chamber. The area was still strewn about with rubble and omnic husks, the remnants of that fateful night’s battle still not entirely cleared away.

____

A massive sarcophagus towered several stories high against the back wall, the monochrome of a moonlit night almost concealing its distinct cybernetic texturing against the ancient stonework all around it and the mixture of materials in the gigantic pyramid peak that ascended skyward.

____

The Temple of Anubis.

____


	4. Chapter 4

Sombra knelt at the base of the statue-like containment unit, examining a small pile of rubble. Amongst the dust and debris from the battle – and indistinguishable from it, to anyone else – the hacker noted the presence of several small fragments with a distinct shape and composition. The tiny, gravel-sized shards resembled chips of blue-gray stone, but had a texture like petrified wood.

A calling card Sombra was growing all-too-familiar with.

The hacker stood, and in the pointed silence, placed a hand on the sarcophagus. Magenta circuit lines spread over the broad, metal panels.

“I hope you’re not planning on waking it up again,” Ana chided with uncertain humor in her voice.

“No, just opening a channel,” Sombra clarified. “It’s still dormant and it’ll stay that way, but if it lets me, I can see what’s— _gah!_ ”

Sombra recoiled at the influx of data, her hand instinctively pulling away, though strands of purple light still connected the tips of her nails to the machine’s surface. She shuddered to her core as constant waves of anguish overtook her, Anubis’s maddening, frantic thoughts filtering in through her neural implants.

“What’s happening?” 76 demanded as he adjusted his rifle somewhere behind her.

Sombra winced and hissed at the _screams_ filling her mind, pushing through as she searched for the answer she needed. “I can… _feel it_ ,” she mumbled weakly, her composure nearly at its end. “Anubis… I can feel its pain.”

“Sombra!” Ana shouted with concern.

The hacker collapsed, falling to her knees as she leant against the metal paneling of the sarcophagus. “ _Lo siento_ …” she whispered, laying her hand gently on cool metal as her eyes closed around flowing tears.

This was Anubis, one of the gods of the Omnic Crisis, one of the very same murderous machines whose unprovoked war had taken her home and her family. The tears fell all the same, over the solemn palliative of whispered words.

“Just… go to sleep again, like before. It’ll be over soon…”

Sombra’s circuit lines faded from the metal surface, and the deafening cries quieted. The hacker took several deep breaths before slowly and shakily rising to her feet.

“…What did you see?” Ana cautiously began. “What really happened here, that night?”

“Pretty much what I expected from the start,” Sombra snarked with confidence, her composure nearly restored as if nothing had happened at all. She turned back to face her two companions, the distress that had been on her face moments before now concealed by a twisted, bitter smile.

Ana took a step back, having apparently taken a step forward at some undetermined point.

76’s posture notably shifted, as if he’d dropped his regimented stance but now felt it necessary once more. “I’m not in the mood for games. _Spit it out_.”

“I knew something was up as soon as it happened,” Sombra began, a dark laugh and a cryptic urgency fighting for control of her voice. “Anubis was _smart_. If it really wanted to spread its code across the would like it said, it could have done that without anyone ever knowing. But that night… it didn’t have a plan. It _couldn’t_ have a plan. It was _lashing out_ , violently, at anyone who got close…” She pointed back through the doorway by which they’d entered moments earlier. “…starting with whoever was trying to get away down that tunnel. Whoever _left it like this _.”__

____

76 seemed uncharacteristically hanging on the hacker’s every word, and when he spoke, his usual frustration had been exchanged for solemn curiosity. “Left it like _what?_ ”

Sombra shuddered again, averting her gaze as she moved to support herself against the wall behind the containment unit.

“They… _took a piece of it_.”

After a moment of stunned silence, Ana took several steps in a wide arc around the hacker, giving herself a closer look at the machinery. “Part of its code, you mean?”

“A piece of its mind,” Sombra said flatly, turning to face the sniper. “I could… hear it screaming.”

“But _how?_ ” Amari asked, pointedly. “The people here were trying to reverse-engineer Anubis for _decades_ before Overwatch shut the project down, and they never got anywhere close to something like this.”

“A backdoor,” Sombra began, “Something that was always part of its code, hidden away.” She paused, taking a step away from the wall. “These God Programs, the ones from the crisis? Everyone wants to know how they work, but no one actually knows where they came from.” She turned pointedly to 76. “You’re looking for whoever took down Overwatch? It goes _a lot fucking deeper than that_ , let me tell you. Someone _made_ these programs, let them loose on the world, and now…”

Sombra glanced upward to the top of the containment unit, where the profile of Anubis’s ornate headpiece was silhouetted in the moonlight.

“And now… that someone’s coming to collect.”

Suddenly, Sombra turned again to her two companions, her tone reimbued with a simple, smug superiority as she continued, “So now you _know_. Now you know the kind of messed-up shit you’re dealing with, and why you need to stay the hell away. Cause whoever’s behind this… they’ve been doing it for a _very_ long time and they’re _not_ going to fuck around. They’ll _destroy_ you, however they can, and with _whoever_ they can.”

Sombra narrowed her eyes at Amari. “No matter how much you’ve tried to push yourself out of their lives…”

She then cast her scowl at 76. “…or how long ago the both of you moved on.”

The two old soldiers stood in silent judgement.

After a long moment, 76 sighed. “Look, kid…”

“I know how fucking stubborn you can be, but this isn’t a fight for you!” Sombra shouted suddenly, her frustrated voice showing signs of breaking. “Believe me, I _get_ what you two are trying to do, more than anyone else will ever understand, but you’ve been in this game for too long to start over. You’ve had _lives_ , and it’s already too late. You _pendejes_ gave up everything thinking it would help, but it’s _not enough!_ Not enough for this.”

“There’s always a risk in a war,” grumbled 76, securing hold of the slight pause and taking a threatening step forward. “You really think after all this time we’d just _let this go?_ ”

“Jack…” Ana called out softly, her voice hesitant.

“The fact is, I can do this, and you can’t!” Sombra beamed. “You want to know why? Because I never had anything to start with! I’ve got nothing and no one, and it’s going to _stay_ that way! For all I care, they can burn the whole world down looking for me, and I’ll keep running! I won’t stop for anything, and anyone trying to follow me will just—”

Sombra caught the flourish of rippling fabric in her peripheral vision as Ana drew and fired her sidearm in less than a second. The hacker instinctively clutched at the sharp sting of a needle in her neck, but dropped to the ground in an instant.

_Mierda._

  


* * *

  


Sombra’s neural implants kept her mind conscious even as her body fell limp and someone – she couldn’t tell who – hoisted her over their shoulder and began to carry her out of the temple.

She could shock herself awake if she really needed to, possibly enough to fight her way out, but at least enough to send herself to the translocator beacon she’d planted a block away from Hakim’s safehouse. But she’d rather not play that hand early, if she didn’t have to. The most likely scenario was that the two would just carry her back to Ana’s hideaway for an interrogation, and she could worry about escaping later.

Still, she kept the best track of her position as she could, just in case something went off-script. She hacked into the area’s cameras – the security was a joke, as usual – and got to work tracking her progress through the city and erasing herself from the footage. That, in fact, turned out to be a much easier task than she thought. The two old soldiers really _did_ know how to stick to the shadows.

Eventually the three made their way to what Sombra guessed was a stolen hover-skiff, and set out into the cold, desert night toward Ana’s necropolis.

“I’m gonna get down to it,” 76 began after the skiff had been traveling for several minutes. “Can we trust her?”

“Instincts aside, I’m not sure we have good _reason_ to,” Ana began with a certain hesitance, “she still hasn’t shown us any proof.”

“True, but I have to say it: How often do _we_ share our intel? If she’d given us something, I’d be _more_ suspicious. But still… no reason the whole thing couldn’t have been a show.”

“Oh, it was _definitely_ that,” Amari snarked with a pleasant chuckle. “The question is whether its purpose was to deceive, or to educate.”

“I’m still not sure I can believe it, but if what she said is true…” 76 huffed, a change in the clarity of his voice giving away that he’d removed his mask. “Maybe we _are_ way out of our depth on this one. I just don’t know what other choice we have. What other choice the _world_ has.”

“Even we can’t put the weight of the world on our shoulders. That’s what got us in this mess in the first place.”

“Who, then? _Her?_ She’s just a kid!”

“You don’t have to tell me, Jack. You think I don’t look at her and see everything I was always afraid of?”

“She’s not your responsibility.”

“I know that. It still doesn’t make it hurt any less, seeing right in front of me what this life can do to someone.”

“So, you believe her now?”

“Everyone needs someone, Jack. You can’t cut everyone important out of your life and think you’ll be just fine. At the very least, I believe what she’s said about herself, because I’ve seen it all before.”

“ _Hmph_. From where I’m standing, so have I.”

Ana _hm-hmed_ an amused hum. “Loot at us, Jack. Bickering like children. It almost makes me wonder if Sombra _is_ the adult in the room.”

“I wouldn’t go that far.” His voice faded from a light chuckle to something more solemn. “I hate to admit it, but you _are_ right. Some variables are just outside our control. I don’t like to think about it, but I accept it. Everyone does.” A long pause. “I just don’t get how _she_ can’t.”

“She’s not a soldier, Jack.”

A heavy sigh. “We’re all—”

“Oh, not _this_ again.”

Another pause, one that stretched for almost a minute, only the light hum of the longboat-like skiff punctuating the silence of a cool, moonlit night in the continuing calm before the inevitable storm.

“…Look at everything she’s told us and tell me I’m wrong.”


	5. Chapter 5

Sombra was glad she’d remained partially conscious through the night when she pushed off a warm blanket, started to roll over, and found herself staring nearly a full-meter downward at a very precarious-looking stone staircase.

_Who the fuck puts a bed here?_

Very carefully, the hacker tiptoed to the corner of the rectangular ledge and stepped out onto the small landing that adjoined the single staircase below to the two paths that angled out, around, and upward to the level above. She cautiously proceeded upward and into the morning sun.

She stepped out onto a stone brick rooftop overlooking the necropolis. A rectangular hole in the center seemed to act as a skylight to a room below. Lush palm trees sprang up on either side, and beyond them, the outer walls of the ancient city of the dead. The spires of two enormous obelisks framed a stunning view of the city of Cairo, distant metal gleaming and shimmering on the horizon.

Sombra caught sight of Amari near the low, crumbing wall at the outer edge, near where she appeared to have set up a small observation perch with a mounted telescope and what looked to be the digital feed from it displayed on a small laptop computer. Her back was turned, but her gaze seemed fixed on something other than the screen.

“Sleep well, I take it?” the sniper asked without moving.

Sombra briefly froze, but recovered quickly. “Did you figure that out just _now_ , or when you didn’t hear me roll out of bed, fall, and break my neck?”

Ana let out a quiet chuckle and, as the hacker approached, set down a framed photograph on the sand-swept stonework near where she’d arranged several others, along with one of her handheld dart guns.

“It’s not going to wake up again, you know,” Sombra remarked as she noted the telescope was trained on the pyramid portion of the Temple of Anubis. 

“Better not to risk it,” Ana replied as she turned around to face the hacker, gesturing to a tray of tea set out along the wall. “Would you like something to drink?”

“Yeah… don’t know what you put in that, so… no thanks.”

A pleasant smile appeared on the now-maskless and gently weathered face of the sniper, her remaining eye glimmering with a hint of mischief. “Well, at least you’re smarter than Jack was.”

“Speaking of…” Sombra began as she returned a measured smirk. “where _did_ he run off to anyway?”

“Oh, I’m sure he’s around here somewhere.”

Sombra rolled her eyes. “…Set up in the cliffs with his rifle trained on me, I take it?”

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” Ana huffed jokingly, but with faint hints of frustration, before turning to let her gaze fall back on the sprawling necropolis and the desert beyond. “Give him time, he’ll come around,” she added softly after a long moment.

“Yeah, if you _have_ that time,” Sombra said pointedly as she leaned against one of the higher sections of wall. She let the words hang in the air for several moments before letting out a long sigh. “So, why’d you bring me here? You really want me to spell it all out for you so you can run off and get yourselves killed again?”

Ana turned her head enough to arch her one visible eyebrow, a smile at the corner of her lips. “I never _did_ give you the chance to finish, so… very well. Go on and tell me what an old fool I am.”

Sombra ‘s posture slackened as she gave the sniper another frustrated eye-roll and turned away, her back against the wall as she crossed her arms. “You still think you know everything, don’t you,” she murmured softly, shaking her head.

“There aren’t many things these old eyes haven’t seen,” the sniper said, before letting out a small, pleasant chuckle. “Or rather, this old eye.”

“Amélie wasn’t a traitor,” Sombra said flatly.

The pointed silence was all the answer the hacker needed, a quickly-fading smirk crossing her lips.

“She wasn’t working for Talon all along,” Sombra continued with a shudder, “only after they took her. They… they _tortured_ her, turned her into some kind of science experiment. O’Deorain helped, you remember her? _She_ was the real traitor, but… only because Talon paid the bills when no one else would. No loyalty there… or, _morality_ , I think. They’re just using her too, really…”

The hacker risked a glance back toward Ana, and though she was confident she’d managed to hide the hurt on her face and in her voice, the creased brow of concern that slowly replaced the sniper’s shocked expression told her she’d failed.

“You don’t have to go back, you know.”

Sombra reeled with a strange, confused glare from the unexpected words. “Look, _amiga_ … setting aside the fact that you’ve decided to trust me all of a sudden – which I’m sure has _nothing_ to do with your lingering guilt over being a terrible parent – it’s really not that simple. Still got stuff to do, moles to find, you know the drill. So, thanks for the offer, but… no thanks.” 

Predictably, she’d managed to elicit a brief scowl from the woman, but it quickly faded. “And I’m sure you won’t be asking for any help, of course. Just keeping the _fate of the world_ all to yourself, like usual.”

“That’s not it at all.”

“Really, now?” Ana challenged with feigned disbelief. “Then please, enlighten me. Because from where I’m standing it looks like you don’t _want_ any help. That you think you can get to the end of this _all_ by yourself without any—”

“Because I think I _can’t_.”

Sombra took a long breath through the pointed silence, slowly unclenching her fists but unable to reopen her tightened eyes.

“I don’t know if there _is_ an end to this,” she finally began, her voice bleak and scathing. “I’m getting close, I know it, but every day still feels like it might be the one where it would all go to hell if it wasn’t hell already. This is me telling you to get out while you can.” She opened her eyes to give the old soldier a narrow glare. “Save yourself that, and if you won’t do it for you, do it for _her_ , because if you go down this road… whether we work together or we don’t, it won’t matter. The only difference is whether you’re going to die _with_ me or two steps behind me.”

Ana’s expression had slowly taken on a grave concern, but after a long pause, she finally shook her head. “This isn’t right, you know. None of this is right. _You_ trying to take the bullet for _us?_ It shouldn’t be like that.”

Sombra managed an almost-humorless smirk. “Right, because that’s _your_ job, isn’t it?” After another moment, she burst out in ironic laughter. “And it’s damn funny, you thinking I’m trying to be some kind of _hero_. Believe me, I’d let you two take the fall in a heartbeat if there was anything I could get out of it.” With a long sigh, the hacker’s expression sobered. “But there’s not. _I’m_ the one they’ve got their eye on. I’m not selfless, _amiga_ … I’m just already doomed.”

The hand that settled on Sombra’s shoulder made her tense suddenly, her mind racing with conflicted thoughts as she shuddered but didn’t pull away. “Ha! That’s rich!” _You don’t know me._ “Probably didn’t even bring me up here for answers, did you?” _It’s not real, remember that._ “Just felt _sorry_ for me, huh?” _Get out of here._ “Yeah… a little too late to finally get maternal, don’t you think?” _Dammit,_ chica _, what are you hanging around for? Get moving!_

“You can’t keep going like this,” Ana insisted, seeming unphased by the amused superiority Sombra had been faking. “You don’t know what this life will do to you.”

“Yeah, thanks, I didn’t know already,” Sombra snarked dryly with a scowl. Her eyes were locked with that of the sniper, who had slowly moved around to face her, hand still settled upon the hacker’s shoulder. “Maybe try fixing your own shit and staying out of mine. Tell Seventy-Six our deal’s still on – he was going to figure out it was me eventually – but from now on…” Sombra’s glare faltered, and she shook her head, her eyes wide and averted as she paused for a long moment.

“…just join Overwatch again or some shit, keep tracking Talon, I don’t _care_. But don’t look far enough past that you can’t pull yourself back. You better find what you care about real quick, and keep it safe. Be ready for the worst when it comes calling. That’s all you can do in this world.”

She caught movement in her periphery, and turned just as Amari began to raise her other arm – from the look in her eye, seemingly intending to settle it on Sombra’s cheek. As the slow, careful gesture proceeded, a pixelated shimmer had already started pulling the hacker away, and whatever destination the touch was intended for, nothing physical remained there by the time it arrived.

Several miles away, in a back alley of Cairo, hidden between two multi-story sandstone buildings and open to the sky above, Sombra watched the last motes of purple light disappear into nothingness around her. She took a quick moment to stow the translocator beacon back in place with the others, then slumped heavily against one of the walls, refusing to put her head in her hands but settling for a tight crossing of her arms.

The tears fell all the same.


	6. Epilogue

I need a location

tough luck, then

no new activity in weeks

even I can’t pull a location out of thin air

Yes you can

You have direct access

I know it’s you, Sombra

who? me?

Enough games

aww you’re no fun

but to be real, he’s been off the grid since before christmas

not even Talon knows where he goes

and I’m supposed to believe you don’t either

believe it or not, 

it’s actually not that easy to track a literal ghost

Any other intel, then?

…

and what is it you’re looking for, exactly?

Details.

wow

so specific

Just… anything you can tell me

about?

Status of the target

…meaning?

…

I’m not good at this

then don’t try

Can you at least…

Just give me _something_.

…

  


* * *

  


As the new window popped up amid Sombra’s screens, the first thing she saw was Soldier: 76 recoiling in surprise.

No, _not_ Soldier: 76.

He wasn’t wearing the mask.

In the moment, he was caught off-guard, the gruff, regimented vigilante exterior nowhere to be found. Lit by the glow of the monitor, his face was old and weathered – a large diagonal scar crossing from his forehead to below his eye, and another, smaller one scratched across his lips – but the man who didn’t seem sure what to do about the video link that had just opened on his computer screen was unmistakably farm-boy-turned-strike commander Jack Morrison.

Sombra would still give him the dignity of a moment to correct, pretending to be occupied with something on another screen as she sneered, “Fine, what do you want?”

She wasn’t sure why she’d even done it. She rarely risked face-to-face interaction, even over a distance. It could have been a concession that Jack already knew what she looked like, or… the lingering feeling of something having been just slightly _off_ about her last encounter with Amari, though she full well knew that was her paranoia talking. She _also_ full well knew neither of those things had actually been the reason, but she’d let herself pretend for a while longer.

“Uh…” the vigilante still seemed wholly unprepared, his confusion and hesitance now clearly stemming from something beyond the initial shock.

Sombra finally settled herself, giving her full, patient attention to the video call.

On the other end, at one of the tech stations in the moonlit central chamber of Ana’s necropolis, Jack Morrison eyed the hacker with much less impatience than had been expected.

She knew he wanted answers, but something between interest and concern brewing in those light blue eyes told Sombra she was something more to him that just another obstacle in his way.

Apparently, the metaphor had stuck.

“He’s still making his own costumes, you know,” Sombra broke the silence, making her best attempt to sound casual.

Jack’s muted response, disguised partially with a cough, was in truth a light chuckle with even the ghost of a smile. “I can _see_ that,” he said, finally forcing his face into something of a solemn scowl.

It was the same arrangement they’d had since the beginning, it was just… a different kind of information. Something she’d always hoped he’d end up asking for, just like she hoped Overwatch would end up making use of that one set of classified documents in particular she’d hidden where even the poster girl could find it.

And if _this_ was the track he was on now, it might just keep him out of worse trouble.

“You’ve got _five_ minutes,” Sombra began pointedly, emphatically splaying out the digits of the hand she held up for the screen. “and I make no guarantees you’ll _like_ the answers I have to give, but…” The hacker turned her hand around, expertly curling her fingers inward from fourth-to-first as she pretended to examine her nails. She let her eyes linger there for a moment longer as she absently broadcast the end of her terms.

“…Ask away.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I have plans for three mini-series in total, featuring different 'guest stars' and focusing on different stages of Sombra's investigation. Now, I'm not sure when, or if, you'll end up seeing the others. I'm treating _I Know Everything About You_ as the top priority, and there's still a chance I might breeze through the whole thing and never get around the the prequels (especially since they're kinda angsty to write and I'm not completely happy with what I have so far).
> 
> And for people following that fic... the second half/volume in its entirety still a fair ways off, but I've been rearranging some things plotwise and arc-wise that could mean there _might_ just be a new update or fifteen sooner rather than later.


End file.
